Adding a Vehicle

After your device has been installed in your vehicle, you must add the vehicle’s information to the GPS Insight portal (register). You can add vehicles by entering information into the portal one at a time or by importing data from a spreadsheet.

You must have the Vehicle Admin permission in order to manage vehicles.

For most device models, you need to have the following to add the vehicle to the portal (required fields are indicated by an asterisk *):

Field Name

Description

Serial Number*

The unique serial number of each GPS device that is associated with a specific vehicle. The device serial number(s) are pre-populated into your account at the time of installation. Each device can be registered to only one vehicle.

The user-friendly identifier for the vehicle used in maps, reports, and so on. You can decide how to label each vehicle in your fleet. Examples for vehicle labels may include using numbers for the vehicles (e.g., 22, 23, 24), both numbers and descriptions (e.g., 194 – Component Semi), the serial number of the device (e.g., 433208XXXX), or any abbreviated notation that is already in place at your company (e.g., TRK-91 for truck or C-42 for crane). You can also override the vehicle label from user preferences.

VIN*

The Vehicle Identification Number. Enter the VIN that is associated with the specific serial number of the installed device. Refer to your vehicle/device registration card (if available) to ensure you associate the right vehicle with the right device.

Initial Odometer*

The mileage on the vehicle at the time of installation. This value may not be required for registration of certain device models.

Initial Run Time

The number of running hours the engine has accumulated. Only relevant for assets, service reminders, or frequent idling.

Country*

The country where the vehicle operates.

License State*

The state in which the vehicle is licensed.

License Plate

The license plate number of the vehicle."

Color

The color of the vehicle.

Make

The make of the vehicle. Automatically populated when VIN is entered.

Model

The model of the vehicle. Automatically populated when VIN is entered.

Model Year

The model year of the vehicle. Automatically populated when VIN is entered.

Engine Size (L)

The size of the engine (used to calculate the Idle GPH on emissions reports). If unknown, leave blank.

Enter Vehicle Information

Entering vehicle information manually is often used when you have a small number of vehicles (1-5) to register at a time.

To add a vehicle:

From the portal, hover over the Account menu, click Manage Vehicles, and click Open.

The Manage Vehicles and Groups page opens in a new browser tab.

At the bottom of the Vehicle List grid, click Vehicle next to Register New.

In the Register New Vehicle window, enter the required information for the vehicle/device. (Required fields are denoted with an asterisk *. See above for descriptions.)

Click Register Vehicle.

A message appears to indicate the registration was successfully added.

Continue the registration process for each vehicle/device in your fleet.

Go back to the browser tab that contains the dashboard.

From the Vehicle Selector dashlet, you should now see the vehicles you added; however, the vehicle will not appear until it has been driven after the device installation.

Import Vehicle Information

The portal provides several options for importing and exporting data to and from a spreadsheet. You can use the import option for registering a large batch of vehicles as long as the serial numbers for your devices are already loaded into the portal. The maximum number of rows spreadsheet upload accepts is 1,500. If your spreadsheet has more than this number it is recommended to break it up and perform multiple uploads for each group of 1,500 until it is complete.

If you already have data in the portal, it’s a good practice to first export the data for safe-keeping so that you can restore if you later make a mistake in your import.

To import vehicles:

From the portal, hover over the Account menu, click Manage Vehicles, and then click Update/Export items using a spreadsheet.

Within the spreadsheet, column names appear in Row 1 and an example record appears in Row 2. Replace Row 2+ with your own data.

Fields in the Reference column on the Update/Export page are required. If your spreadsheet has duplicate data rows for a reference column, such as two rows with the same username or VIN, the spreadsheet upload will only import one record using the last row of data.

Available columns for vehicle import include: VIN, Vehicle Label, Serial Number, Color, License Plate, License Country, License State, Odometer, Make, Model, Model Year, Fuel Type, Fuel Capacity, Idle GPH, Engine Size, Run Time, Run Time Timestamp, and Vehicle Icon. You must include data for the following cells: VIN, Vehicle Label, Serial Number (reference columns), License Country, License State, and Odometer (required fields). All other cells are optional and can be left blank. (See above for descriptions.)

For VIN, Serial Number, and Odometer values, format the cells as either number (with no decimal places) or text (if the cell value starts with a 0). If you have multiple items within a cell, use the following delineator(s):
~ – full path for hierarchy (e.g., Company Name~East~Northeast)
: – multiple assignments (e.g., Vehicles:Drivers)
; – multiple items (e.g., red;gray)

Save the spreadsheet with your changes.

From the portal in the Spreadsheet Actions grid, click the Register New Vehicles option.

In the Open window, browse to the location where you saved the file for import, and double-click it.

Click Upload Now.

The Import Step 2: Define Columns grid appears. This grid allows you to see how your spreadsheet column names (shown in the drop-downs) will be applied to the appropriate fields in the portal (shown in bold). Set any fields marked “IGNORE” to the appropriate column name.

Click Preview the Import.

The Import Step 3: Preview Import Data grid appears. This grid allows you to verify the data that will be imported. Valid values for reference fields will be marked with a green check box.

Click Proceed with Import.

The Import Step 4: Import All Data grid appears. This grid provides a summary of the import results. If any rows were skipped, they will be listed here with the reason they were not imported.

From the menu at the top of the page, click Vehicles to view the new vehicles that were imported.

Certain Spreadsheet Upload Actions can update only one column at a time. For example, the Attribute Update process would need to be performed twice to update the Car Color, then the Car Type attribute. You would choose “–Ignore–” for one of the attributes during each upload so only one was chosen. (That the column header on that particular spreadsheet is the actual Attribute Name as entered in the system. This name must be listed in the first row to designate the Attribute Name for Attribute update.) The Hierarchy Update the spreadsheet process is similar in that you would perform it twice to assign a vehicle to two different Hierarchy Trees.